Pages

Monday, 31 March 2008

Oreo Muffins with Peanut Butter Chips

I bought a pack of buttermilk recently and used it on 3 separate occasions.

I first made a batch of buttermilk muffins following a recipe I copied from a magazine.

I replaced the chocolate chips with Reese's peanut butter chips...I finally chanced upon these at Cold Storage (Vivo city) a couple of months back...and I have been saving them just for this recipe! Knowing that the use of buttermilk will make bakes very tender, I had very high expectations for these muffins...plus the fact that the recipe was contributed by a local bakeshop and muffins are their speciality. So you would imagine how disappointed I was when the muffins didn't turn out as expected. They were slightly dry, even fresh out of the oven :(

Next, I tried making some buttermilk biscuits...hoping that I could yield a batch of nice, buttery biscuits just like those from Popeye's or Mcdonalds. It turned out to be a complete flop...they looked and tasted more like dinner rolls instead! I read that buttermilk biscuits are supposed to be very easy to make...but it proof to be a great challenge for me to cut out the sticky dough into rounds. I guess I have to read up more on these before my next attempt.

On the last day before the leftover buttermilk expires, I managed to squeeze in sometime to bake these Oreo muffins...

We actually came up with this recipe over a cup of Oreo Mcflurry! When we got home, I retrieved this very much trusted muffin recipe and adapted it according to my family members' wish list. I replaced the milk with buttermilk, and added in crushed oreo cookies and the peanut butter chips. I did noticed that the recipe calls for baking soda...which goes hand in hand with buttermilk. The original recipe calls for melted butter...since I was short of time to melt and let the butter cool off, I replaced it with sunflower oil.

These muffins didn't look very pleasing due to the crushed oreos. Nevertheless, they tasted very delicious...moist and fluffy. Not only were they soft and tender, they were also packed with flavours...you can't go wrong with peanut butter chips and oreos?!

It was only while trying to compose this post that I learned from the joyofbaking site, that, besides buttermilk, using oil instead of butter will yield very tender muffins...as oil prevents the development of gluten in the flour.

If you were to ask me how I would rate these muffins...I would say these are the sort of muffins I can give away with confidence to my friends...of course, provided they like Both oreos and peanut butter ;)

Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl. Add peanut butter chips, crushed oreo biscuits and mix with a spatula. Make a well in the centre.

Place egg, oil, buttermilk and sugar in another bowl. Mix (with a manual whisk) until thoroughly combined.

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. With the spatula, gently fold all the ingredients to form a wet batter. Just mix until the flour are incorporate into the batter. DO NOT Over mix. The batter will appear lumpy.

Spoon batter into paper muffin cups. Bake for 20mins until muffins turn golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

34 comments:

Shame about the biscuits and the buttermilk muffins! I hear that scones and biscuits aren't *too hard* to make, but that you need to follow lots of rules to get them right. The last time I made scones I had a problem with my dough being really sloppy and them not rising enough in the oven. :(

I find that the liquid needed for scones/biscuits can vary quite a lot from the recipe depending on the climate! So I always add half of what is stated then add more as I go along to avoid a sticky dough.

I've been looking out for peanut butter chips for the longest time! Thanks for sharing; I'll head down to Vivo to look for them :P

And beautiful Oreos! I love the addition of the peanut butter chips. You're right, buttermilk always yields a tender muffin. I'm more partial towards muffins that use either buttermilk or other liquid fat like melted butter. Hehe :P

Oooh that reminds me of my pack of peanut butter chips and several failed attempts with oreo. I doubt I had any success with buttermilk either. Guess I should hold off playing with buttermilk till I get my baking steam back. Thanks for your encouragement HHB :)

Actually, any fat, regardless of whether it is solid or liquid, will inhibit the formation of gluten. Any shortening (fat) will 'shorten' the gluten strands in your baked goods, so don't be afraid of fat!

I am a newbie in baking. After looking at your blog, I cannot resist the tempation of baking. First thing, need to find a suitable oven. Which brand and model you using? I owned a Cornell Electric Oven. See picture here..(http://rss.forum.lowyat.net/user/14891). It has the heat select mode, timer and temparature adjusting setting.

I have tried baking using the oven recently but the turnout was horrible. Burnt on the top but uncooked inside. :( Somehow I do not know how to control temparature with the heat select thoough I followed the receipe instruction on the temperature.

Thanks Sarah for the encouragement, I will certainly give biscuits a try again!

Baking Fiend, I love the peanut butter chips, but I am not really a fan of oreos ;)

Rei, you can always give this a try! They are real easy to make!

Little Nutbrown Hare, Thanks for the tips. Next time I will remember not to pour in the liquid at one go!

Dear Pat, thanks! Seems like everyone loves Oreos :D

Hi Ovenhaven, hope you can get the peanut butter chips!

Sherlyn, oh yes, I didnt know about these peanut butter chips until my friend told me about it! However I have tried Reese's peanut buttercups...they are lovely...imagine a small chocolate tart shell filled with peanut butter filled inside. We use to buy one carton back from the States...not easily available here.

Yuri, it's the failure that helps us to improve. I have a no. of baking disasters too!

Hi Anonymous, I am using a Tefal oven that looks something like this (http://www.tefal.com/All+Products/Cooking+appliances/Ovens/Products/Crousty+Vap/Crousty+Vap.htm)Sorry, I am not sure about the heat select of your oven, as my oven has only a timer and a temperature setting.

Is the heating element located on the top of the oven? Maybe you can try baking your cakes at a lower rack position? You can also use a piece of foil to cover the cake when u notice that the top started to brown but the recommended time is not up. It is also good to use an oven thermometer to check that your oven temperature is correct.

Hi 4MalMal, I am using a digital camera, Cannon Powershot G3. My photos are actually not that good as compared to the other bloggers out there :)

Hi i accidentally found your blog and found this particular topic very interesting, bout using oil in your muffin moisture.Recently i used sunflower oil with butter(50g each) and cream it together with my sugar. However after baking on three occasions, my cake turns out to be very crumbly and not moist. Do you know what's the problem, could it be because of my oven temperature?

Hi Siti Arnie, there are basicall two methods of making muffins. One is the 'Muffin' method, the other one is the 'Creaming' method. For the Muffin method, just add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until the flour mixtures are just incorporated. The batter should be very lumpy. Overmixing will cause a very dry and hard muffin. This method will yield very fluffy and moist muffins. The fat use are usually oil or melted butter.

Whereas for the 'Creaming' method, you cream butter (soft but not liquid) with sugar, then add eggs and then the flour mixture. This is more like making butter/pound cakes. The texture will be more "cake-like" then "muffin-like". Just like cupcakes. The crumbs are more fine.

I am not too sure what happens to your muffins, it could be the oven temperature, or it could be due to the mixing. You may want to give this recipe a try, coz it is quite a good recipe. Hope this helps :)

sorry for the confusion. I asked you previously on 4/4 regarding the oven and the heat select. No worries on that. I have another spare oven. Brand is Delongi and I have tried out your receipe on Horkicks Doggie Cookies and the turn out was well.. thks so much. i enjoyed baking a lot after stumbling upon ur blog. Really inspiring. :)

Hi Anonymous, no worries :)Good to hear that your cookies turn out well! Thanks for your kind words :D Welcome to the world of baking...but I must warn you, once u are in, it will be difficult to get out ;)

Hi Alice, I bought the buttermilk from Cold Storage. You can refer to this site for details on how to substitute buttermilk (http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html), scroll to the section under Milk. Hope this helps.

Hi Elaine, I bought my oven 3 years ago...it is a small table top Tefal oven (20 litres). I got it at around $250-260, I think it was the cheapest oven I could afford. It is not a very reliable oven as the temperature will drop by at least 20 degC once I put in the cake. I think the crispy top could be due to the temperature, do you have an oven theremometer to check? Or you may try changing the rack position, maybe bake at the lower position?

hi HHB,thnks for the reply... my oven.. is a cheapo brand.. the temp. reali difficult to control too.. yes i do have the oven theremometer.. but i find whenever i follow the temp on the thermometer it will over bake my stuff.. :(.. ..mmh my oven have top and bottom heat.. so i i was to lower the rack... the bottom could be over baked liao :(...

Hi, I was wondering what brand of flour do you use? Do they make a difference? I've been looking online for an answer but can't seem to find so I was wondering what you frequent bakers think :-)Thanks!